JACKSON, Miss. The Mississippi House yesterday overwhelmingly approved
a bill that would allow the Ten Commandments and other religious texts
to be placed in public buildings, a day after the Senate also approved
it.

Mississippi sounds even worse than Kansas.

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Mississippi bill would allow Sermon on the Mount posting

By The Associated Press
03.31.05

JACKSON, Miss. The Mississippi House yesterday overwhelmingly approved
a bill that would allow the Ten Commandments and other religious texts
to be placed in public buildings, a day after the Senate also approved
it.

The legislation now goes before Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who is
"inclined to sign" it, said his spokesman, Pete Smith.

The bill, H.B. 1149, would "authorize" the postings at the "discretion"
of government departments and offices statewide.

The measure passed the House 97-15 and the Senate 40-4 despite warnings
from some lawmakers that the state should wait until the U.S. Supreme
Court rules on the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments
on public property.

Mississippi has had a law since 2001 requiring the motto "In God We
Trust" to be posted in public schools. The new bill would allow the
motto, the Ten Commandments and excerpts from Jesus' Sermon on the
Mount, also known as the Beatitudes, to be posted in all public
buildings.

Democratic Sen. Johnnie Walls unsuccessfully tried to kill the bill on
March 29.

"What we're attempting to do here is proselytize our religion," he said.
"We're setting ourselves up for a lot of ridicule. Again, Mississippi
will look less than progressive."

Other lawmakers defended the state's right to decide the issue,
shrugging off questions about the constitutionality of the bill and how
it might be viewed as offensive to people who are not Christians.

"Maybe the Supreme Court will say this is not legal," said Republican
Sen. Alan Nunnelee. "Just because the Supreme Court says something
doesn't mean that it's right."

The high court heard arguments earlier this month in cases involving Ten
Commandments displays in Texas and Kentucky. It is the court's first
consideration of the issue since 1980, when justices ruled the Ten
Commandments could not be displayed in public schools. Mississippi's
2001 law has never been challenged.

"I'm in favor of that bill without equivocation," said House Speaker
Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi.

Rep. Reecy Dickson, D-Macon, who opposed the bill, said the legislation
served no purpose and the passages could appear on public school walls
housing a diverse student population.

"It seems unjust to impose someone's religious beliefs onto someone
else," she said.

But Azzam Abumirshid, president of the Mississippi Muslim Association,
said he had no objection to the bill.

"The Muslim faith and the Christian faith, we share the Ten
Commandments. I don't know why people felt we would be offended,"
Abumirshid said, adding that there are about 400 Muslims in the
metropolitan area of Jackson, the state's capital.

But he said he wasn't familiar with the "In God We Trust" motto or the
Beatitudes.

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, who supported the bill, said if the
legislation were found to be unconstitutional the displays would be
removed.

"The more we can remind people about their moral ethics in society, the
better off we are," Brown said.